Toward the end of his life, Donald Murray felt that his approach to writing instruction was no longer appreciated by journals in his field. Nevertheless, his emphasis on encouraging students to surprise themselves through informal writing still has considerable value. (Contains 1 note.)

This roundtable explores several different composition-related questions and topics. It raises two questions: (1) What theory from composition studies do you believe is important to include in classes for future elementary and/or secondary writing teachers? (2) What are the knowledge, background, traits, and abilities of a successful writing…

This interview examines the relationship between digital scholarship and the politics of higher education. In doing so, it advances a series of recommendations that aim to help digital scholars and digital scholarship achieve an increased level of stature in the academic community.

In this article, the authors comment on Douglas Downs and Elizabeth Wardle's "Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions." As Downs and Wardle note, a one-year academic writing course will not prepare students to write in all fields, and evidence suggests limitations on the transfer of skills. The authors agree, in addition, that the study of…

There is a seductive "commonsense" logic to two opinion pieces that have appeared over the last two years in the "Speaking My Mind" section of "English Journal": (1) Byung-In Seo's "Defending the Five-Paragraph Essay," which appeared in the November 2007 issue; and (2) Kerri Smith's "In Defense of the Five-Paragraph Essay," which appeared in March…

This essay examines the kind of culinary memoir that chronicles the growth and development of the memoirist through the lens of food memories, in narratives that either begin with childhood or that interpose frequent flashbacks to earliest formative experiences. The author examines some of the key elements of this subgenre of the memoir, this…

Interest in and concern about scholarly communications through social work journals seem to have increased recently. One indicator of this concern was the publication of the Miami statement. A Society for Social Work and Research Presidential Task Force was created to continue work on these issues. This article discusses the work of one…

In school classrooms, teachers are always asking their students to tell stories about their lives in the contexts of family and neighbourhood. But what are the conventions and expectations that govern the stories that are told and written in classrooms? In what ways are students encouraged and constrained in writing the stories of their lives? Why…

In 1970, the author learned a simple step in making essays from his advisor. His advisor used a drawing of the Parthenon to illustrate the creation of a five-paragraph essay. It was obvious that his advisor was hesitant on teaching them a very simple concept of essay writing because it was pretty mechanical. Like his advisor, a lot of teachers…

This essay recounts the authors' experiences as community college faculty members in a learning community (LC) linking first-year composition with a class in life-career planning and development. The authors begin with a learning community story shared recently over drinks with a group of community college English teachers. They use the story to…

This essay argues for the value of an ecological metaphor in conceptualizing, designing, and enacting research in writing studies. Such a metaphor conceives of activities, actors, situations, and phenomena as interdependent, diverse, and fused through feedback. This ecological orientation invites composition scholars to research rhetorically: to…

In this article, the author shares a current analysis of data that complements findings from earlier, related research that confirms the emotional aspects of reading experiences. The data from the earlier study is based upon comments by graduate students in online discussion groups, where they share their thoughts about the professional readings…

University presses have largely abdicated the job of substantive editing to outside readers, who write reports evaluating the quality of the work and offering both major and minor editing suggestions. Editors develop a cadre of readers they know they can trust, who will be fair, rigorous, and prompt with their reports. The author particularly…

An article entitled "Pupils Persevere" covered the front page of Madison's local newspaper in February 2005. Highlighting the plight of four alternative programs in Madison's public school system, the article both angered and pleased students at this school. Although the central point of the front-page article was a plea for a larger physical…

This essay offers Neil Postman's thermostatic metaphor as a model for critical teaching. In this model, the role of the composition teacher is that of a thermostat that responds to a changing ideological environment by offering counterbalance. Such a stance is an anti-stance since it requires the teachers to enact philosophies and pedagogies,…